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At approximately 5:46 p.m. a motorist slammed into a traffic signal located at the busy intersection of Fair Oaks Ave and Huntington Dr in South Pasadena.
The driver of the silver sedan was heading southbound on Fair Oaks in the right lane approaching Huntington. As he was executing a left turn at a green light to head east, he maneuvered in such a way that he swerved and dislodged the traffic signal located on the dividing island.
According to Officer Jeffrey Holland of the South Pasadena Police Department, the motorist said in a statement that “the car that was to his left seemed like he was coming into his lane during the turn so he tried moving over a little bit to give him some room but his tire hit the curb and he lost control, went up the curb and hit the signal and stopped on the sidewalk.”
The sidewalk Holland was referring to was the southernmost side of Huntington, two lanes removed from the center island. Crew from the South Pasadena Fire department removed any excess debris from the traffic light and dragged it to ultimate crash site of the vehicle.
The driver, according to Holland, was not injured. The automobile itself, however, sustained considerable damage to the front-end passenger side and windshield.
Allegedly the accident was not the result of reckless driving or speeding with Holland saying the driver “just took the turn like normal, about 15-20 mph. He didn’t realize he was close to the island, hit the island and it took him up the curb and hit the pole.”
Being an unusual intersection – a threeway intersection with a forked lane split at the tail end of southbound Fair Oaks, with signals for traffic heading west towards Fremont Ave and east towards Marengo Ave – traffic flow was diverted northbound either to Fair Oaks for those heading west on Huntington, and Fremont Ave for those heading east.
Eric Fabbro contributed to this report for the South Pasadenan News
